iute's "None of Our Business" Campaign (2026)
Updated: Aug 25
A nod to Balkan eccentricity, iute's campaign shows that financial independence is having no one tell you how to spend your money. Sure, money is our business. But how you spend it is yours.
The Big Idea
Loans often come with sticky stipulations, but financial independence should mean not having to explain yourself.
Iute needed to connect with audiences in their 40s and 50s living in rural Balkan countries. So, what do people in rural Moldova care about? → Certainly not some finance company telling them how to live. They’ve worked for decades, supporting themselves and their families, living lives that can’t comfortably fit into neat corporate boxes.
Traditional lender advertising to this audience is often flat, emotionally empty, and product-led. My take: Leading with a simple message doesn’t mean we must simplify the people receiving it.
The opportunity here was to strike the sweet spot in between loan simplicity and unhinged human expression. We framed financial liberation through the lens of eccentric independence - showing people living lives on their terms.
The message: It doesn’t have to make sense to anyone but you.
What you spend your money on is none of our business. You know what’s best. We’re just happy to help.
Visual examples:
A woman in a silk robe and a small herd of borzois.
A man popping an ollie on a skateboard on a country road.
A rider jumping a horse over an old Soviet Lada.
Why not?
Let the plastic flowers, patterned wallpaper, giant speakers, tools, religious iconography, trophies, embroidered textiles, homemade machinery, whatever is authentically theirs remain. This is their life, we’re just observers.
The goal was to make this feel like a Vice documentary meets enormous Balkan personality. We didn't need to explain the full story behind each visual, and that’s the point. Our business is really... their business.
Where it made sense
Customer: They're grown human beings, not 2-dimensional ad fodder. They know what matters to them better than we do.
Brand: Financial independence can take on a million different forms. This concept allows us to represent our customers in a way that flaunts the authentic and eccentric. Leaving people feeling good about themselves.
Business: This was something that traditional Balkan lenders were not doing. It was bigger than the “shark lender vs. digital bank” conversation. Instead of shouting about how fintech-y or trustworthy we were, we put our customers in the spotlight instead.
The test: A/B: Independence-led creative vs. product-led control Primary KPI: Submitted loan applications Secondary: CAC, CTR
The nitty gritty
Treating people like people, not a demographic.
No polished fintech lifestyle imagery.
No generic happy families.
No spotless homes designed to appeal to everyone.
Instead, we made people's individuality the leading creative. Plastic flowers, patterned wallpaper, giant speakers, tools, trophies, embroidery.
Real people, real environments, really big type.
Direct doesn't have to mean transactional. A plain message can still carry an unexpected idea, and freedom means not having to explain yourself. No one needed iute to tell them what a good life looks like. The humour came from the contrast between the strange, specific thing in the photograph and iute's complete lack of interest in explaining it.
The takeaway: Our business is actually... their business.
Results
So... did it work?
A/B test: Independence-led creative vs. product-led control
Primary KPI: Submitted loan applications
Secondary KPIs: CAC, CTR
Channels: Meta Paid + Performance Max
Market: Moldova
Destination: Cash-loan landing page Run time: 6 weeks
The independence-led creative generated 28% more submitted loan applications than the product-led control, while reducing CAC by 19%.
KPI | Product-led control | Independence-led creative | Result |
Submitted loan applications | 1,120 | 1,430 | +28% |
CAC | €18.40 | €14.90 | -19% |
CTR | 1.8% | 2.3% | +28% |
Ownership
My role: I originated the “None of Our Business” idea, identified the local customer problem it was designed to solve, and built the creative strategy around it. I defined the A/B test structure, decided what creative variables to test and iterate, and led the creative development end-to-end. I created all visual assets myself and localized the creative for Moldova, working with local marketing specialists who provided translated copy. I then reviewed the performance and iterated based on the results.
My team’s role: My HQ team supported the campaign with paid-media execution and ad copy/captions. Local marketing specialists supported with market context and translations.
I owned everything that appeared within the creative itself: concept, art direction, design, messaging framework, localization and iteration.
Still reading? You get a treat 🍪
Below is a selection of ad concepts that, while they fully embraced our campaign message, we had to forego using them because they were quote: "a bit much."
Enjoy 😊
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